HTC Wants to Use Steven Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’ to Sell Virtual Reality to the Masses by, Janko Roettgers

HTC has entered a worldwide partnership with Warner Bros. to exclusively distribute virtual reality (VR) experiences for the studio’s upcoming “Ready Player One” sci-fi movie, which is being directed by Steven Spielberg and is set to be released on March 30, 2018. HTC Virtual Reality SVP Rikard Steiber told Variety that the partnership could be a break-through moment for his industry: “This movie could be defining VR to the broader public.”

“Ready Player One” is based on the Ernest Cline novel by the same title, which has been hailed by many in the VR industry as a seminal piece of writing about virtual worlds. “It is going to be an epic movie,” said Steiber, who’s had a chance to read the script.

Steiber argued that “Ready Player One” could help VR with what he called the “Matrix problem”: The medium is hard to describe to consumers who haven’t used a headset yet. “You have to take the pill to experience it,” Steiber said.